The Mahabharata Secret (39 page)

Vijay sat back and mused.

Why was this particular email troubling him? Was there an even deeper meaning in this email?

Sometimes you need to look deeper within.

Or was he being over-analytical? He had grown so accustomed to discovering multiple hidden messages in the emails that it was difficult not to look for more meanings behind every word.

A thought suddenly swam through his head. He sat up, considering it.

Was it possible?

For a moment, he sat still, trying to dismiss the thought. It seemed incredible. But the harder he tried to banish it, the stronger it seemed to get.

He walked out of his bedroom, and through the corridors of the fort, switching on the lights as he progressed deeper into the fort, until he came to a room that had been constructed around the hillside. This was a room with a huge mural depicting the discourse by Lord Krishna to Arjun the Pandava, on the battlefield of Kurukshetra. The discourse known as the Bhagavad Gita.

He switched on all the lights in the room and stood gazing at the mural, musing over the second line of the email.

Study, the Bhagavad Gita, it is the source of much knowledge.

His mind raced. This line had first helped them isolate the study as the location of the key. But this line also contained the second reference to knowledge, within this email. Was there a connection between this line and the last line of the email which also mentioned the
Gita
, and spoke of the door to knowledge? Was there another meaning to the
Subject of the Gita
other than the obvious reference to Karma which they had already interpreted?

He trembled with excitement as he considered the possibility that the email might be pointing to this mural. The subject of the
Gita
could also mean the discourse itself, which was represented in this painting.

But what was the
door to knowledge
?

Vijay walked closer to the painting and studied it closely. It was a painting that was common in India and he could find nothing exceptional or different about it.

Unless...

He moved closer to the wall and examined the chariot. Only one wheel was visible in the painting.

He held his breath as he studied the wheel and then exhaled sharply.

The wheel of the chariot had nine spokes.

There
had
been another hidden message in the email. What did it lead to?

Vijay sat on the floor, now wide awake, and tried to reason it out. If the clue in the email was taken into consideration, it would mean that his uncle had hidden away something in the fort; something that was connected to the secret of the Nine, something that could be classified as knowledge...and something that fitted the description of being ‘2,000 years of history’.

What could it be? And where could his uncle have hidden it?

He examined the painting again. Perhaps he had missed something. There must be more in the painting to guide him.

Was it the horses? There was nothing special about them.

He studied the figures of Arjuna and Krishna but there was nothing unusual in them either.

It was difficult to search for something when he had absolutely no idea what he was looking for. He sighed and examined the chariot but there was nothing out of the ordinary there either.

What about the wheel? Apart from the nine spokes, did it have anything that stood out? He took in the rim, the spokes and the axle, a portion of which was visible.

Nothing there.

He turned his attention to the centre of the wheel and started.

In his earlier scrutiny of the painting, the hub of the wheel had appeared to be a dark black solid circle. Now, he realised that where the hub should have been, there was a concave cavity. Armed with this knowledge, he now discerned a thin hairline crack in the painting that he hadn’t noticed before. It was barely visible and extended from the missing hub towards the floor and the ceiling, perpendicular to them.

Vijay felt his excitement growing. The last time they were guided by this email they had found the key to the disk, in a painting in his uncle’s study. Was there a link between the key and this painting?

Only one way to find out.

He darted out of the room and sped up the stairs to the study. It took him seconds to find the key and fly down the stairs, back to the room with the mural.

Would it fit?

He slowly slid the circular key into the concave cavity in the mural, his hands trembling with anticipation.

It fitted perfectly.

Vijay could barely contain his excitement.

He turned the key to the left. It locked in with a click. Holding his breath, he turned it in a clockwise direction.

There was a series of clicks and whirrs, then the wall split at the crack he had seen, the two halves of the painting sliding aside with a soft rumble.

Vijay stood transfixed at the archway carved into the rock of the hillside.

The door to knowledge, which you must unlock
.

It now made sense.

He stepped into the darkness beyond the arch. As he crossed the threshold, a soft light played around him and he realised that he was in a tunnel carved out of the rock. It led into a chamber within the hillside.

Entering the chamber, he looked around with awe. Row upon row of stainless steel shelves lined the rocky walls; each bore stainless steel containers.

Against one wall stood a stainless steel table upon which were placed a thermograph and a hygrometer. The thermograph indicated a temperature of 65 degrees Fahrenheit and the hygrometer showed humidity at 35%.

He felt the caress of cool air against his skin and heard the faint hum of an air conditioner.

What was this place? And what was in the steel containers?

Vijay realised that his uncle had gone to great lengths to build this chamber. But what was its purpose?

He strode up to a row of shelves and examined the containers. Each one had a label on it and they were all in a strange, unknown script. He opened one container. Inside was a roll of microfilm.

That explained the air conditioning and the thermograph and hygrometer; they were to ensure that the microfilm was preserved.

What was on the microfilm?

Next, he noticed a screen set up at the far end of the chamber, with a machine before it. It was a microfilm reader. The desk also had a sheaf of papers with notes on it.

Vijay browsed through the papers. The notes were in his uncle’s handwriting. He was reading a paragraph that described the engine of an aircraft that used anti-gravitation as a means of propulsion.

He switched on the microfilm reader. Images appeared on the screen; lines of script, unreadable and undecipherable. He had never seen this script before. But he knew what he was looking at.

Whether it was as the leader of the Nine or simply as a member of the Nine, who was well-versed in ancient Indian languages, Vikram Singh had been tasked with the responsibility of deciphering the ancient library of the Nine. They had seen the abandoned shell of the library in the cavern at Bairat. But here were the contents, safely preserved, and his uncle had been engaged in translating these into English.

Vijay looked around. The shelves nearest him bore containers with labels in English. He understood. His uncle had also preserved the English translations on microfilm.

He now noticed that there was a drawer in the steel desk. He slid it open. It was empty, except for an envelope. To his great surprise, it was addressed to him.

Vijay pulled out a single sheet of paper. It was a letter. He recognised the handwriting as his uncle’s.

It was dated six months ago.

My dearest nephew, Vijay,

If you are reading this letter then it means that you have lived up to my expectations and decoded my messages. It also means that you now know about the Nine and the secret that the brotherhood have guarded for over 2,000 years. What you don’t know yet is that I am the last of the Nine—their leader in the 21st century.

I am sorry I had to keep this from you but I was bound by the code of the Nine.

Your presence within my microfilm chamber implies that I am dead, probably killed by someone who was once a trusted friend and colleague but who turned against the values and principles of the Nine. But that isn’t important. What you must know, however, is that your life may also be in danger, now that I have shared this knowledge with you.

It is my sincere hope that my decision to share my secret with you will not put your life in peril. And I hope you will understand that I have no other choice.

Now, to speak of a matter close to my heart. I am the last surviving member of the Nine. I must pass on my responsibility to someone I trust. And I trust no one more than you, Vijay. So, I am asking you to shoulder the burden I bore for 25 years and become the custodian of the secret of the Nine.

A word about this secret. When the brotherhood of the Nine was founded by Asoka the Great, 2,300 years ago, the nature of the secret was known to the founding members of the Nine. However, the oath of secrecy and the confidentiality surrounding the identity of the Nine, even as members were replaced through the centuries, meant that the nature of the secret and its location were forgotten over the years. Only the puzzle remained to identify the location of the secret. Even I did not know what the secret was until a few years ago.

The reason why no member of the Nine was able to locate the secret until now is because no one person had all the clues necessary to solve the puzzle. It was only six months ago that I came into possession of all the parts of the puzzle that had earlier been with different members of the Nine. I managed to solve some of the clues, but have done so half-heartedly. For it was six months ago that I realised that, having killed the other eight, the traitor whom I had expelled from the brotherhood, would come for me. And this realisation was sealed by an email he sent to me. Since then, finding the secret has not been a priority for me. My concern then was more about handing over the baton to you.

The secret has remained hidden for over 2,000 years. I have no interest in learning where it is concealed. You are the only person, other than I, who now has access to all the parts of the puzzle that can help locate the secret. The choice is yours. But I implore you to resist the temptation to search for the secret of the Nine and let it remain buried wherever it is, for eternity, because this was the purpose for which the Nine was created.

There is, however, another part of the secret that you need to know. What you see about you is a library containing scientific knowledge accumulated over centuries from all parts of the world. Succeeding generations of members added to the original collection of knowledge discovered by the founding members of the Nine to create the greatest treasure trove of knowledge the world has ever known. This must remain concealed just as the Nine have protected it for centuries.

I have faith in your ability to discharge this responsibility.

I am truly sorry, Vijay, for burdening you with this charge without your consent. But there is no other whom I deem fit to exercise this duty.

May God bless you,
Your loving uncle.

Vijay put the letter down on the table, his feelings mixed. At first, a surge of resentment rushed through him; displeasure at his uncle for believing that he could task him with this responsibility.

But there was another feeling that rose up within him almost immediately, quelling the resentment.

A feeling of pride.

His uncle had chosen him to succeed him as a member of the Nine, a brotherhood that was legendary for its selection of members. The enormity of the responsibility was something he would only appreciate with time.

The feeling that had been bothering him suddenly deserted him. He realised now that his uncle had had no intention of sending him on a search for the location of the secret. Rather, in this letter, he had urged him against it. The emails hadn’t been intended to be a trigger for the search he had embarked on.

All his uncle had wanted was for Vijay to find this chamber and take on the responsibility of guarding this library.

Sometimes you need to look deeper within.

If you look for a deeper meaning, you will find it.

Vijay shook his head wistfully. His friends and he had looked too deep within. Overlooking the clues that would have led him to this chamber, he had followed the clues that led him to Sitagarha instead. What a fool he had been!

But then, perhaps it was best it worked out this way, Vijay mused. The secret was now destroyed and beyond the reach of anyone. His mind was surprisingly clear and calm and there was an amazing clarity to his thoughts. Even if the secret cavern was no more, the secrets lived on in this chamber, in this library.

He didn’t
want
to deny the responsibility his uncle had passed onto him.

He was now a member of the Nine.

He
was
The Nine.